Case Study: NRD and the Trail
of the Coeur d'Alenes

We represented the Union Pacific Railroad Company in a CERCLA  natural resource damages action brought in the Federal District Court of Idaho by the Coeur d’Alene Tribe, the State of Idaho and the United States against several mining companies and Union Pacific.    The Tribe, State and United States sought hundreds of millions of dollars in damages for injury to their respective natural resources in the Coeur d’Alene Basin.    Union Pacific settled with these parties in December 1999 in a Consent Decree that the Court entered in August 2000. DGS represented the Railroad in all phases of this litigation and Consent Decree negotiations.   An integral component of the response action and settlement at the site is the “Trail of the Coeur d’Alenes” a 73 mile Rails-to-Trails Project.   The mining companies remaining in the case await the second phase of trial of the case. Union Pacific has resolved its liability, and construction of the Trail is complete.